The recombinant production of a heterologous protein in a bacterial host cell, particularly a Gram-positive bacterial cell, such as, Bacillus, may provide for a more desirable vehicle for producing the protein in commercially relevant quantities.
Recombinant production of a heterologous protein is generally accomplished by constructing an expression cassette in which the DNA coding for the protein is placed under the expression control of a promoter from a regulated gene, suitable for the host cell. The expression cassette is introduced into the genome of the host cell in one or more copies. Production of the heterologous protein is then achieved by culturing the transformed host cell under inducing conditions necessary for the proper functioning of the promoter contained on the expression cassette.
Improvement of the recombinant production of proteins generally requires the availability of new regulatory sequences which are suitable for controlling the expression of the proteins in a host cell. It is an object of the present invention to provide improved methods for producing a polypeptide in a Gram-positive host cell using signal peptide sequences.